Photo By Erin Thompson | The RU-1A Otter (53271) with the Army Security Agency at Fort Huachuca, Arizona,...... read more read more
by Erin E. Thompson, USAICoE Staff Historian
RU-1A OTTER SHOT DOWN OVER CAMBODIA
On Feb. 12, 1969, an RU-1A Otter was shot down over the Cambodian-Vietnamese border while performing radio intercept operations. The four crewmen assigned to the 146th Aviation Company (Radio Research) were subsequently captured by the North Vietnamese and handed over to the Cambodian government.
Cambodia officially operated as a neutral country during the Vietnam War. However, the Ho Chi Minh Trail, passing directly through Cambodia’s northeastern border, was well known as a major supply and infiltration route for the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and the Viet Cong (VC) between North and South Vietnam. The heavy presence of NVA and VC units there made the area a popular target for U.S. reconnaissance efforts.
On Feb. 12, 1969, a four-man crew from the 146th Aviation Company, 224th Army Security Agency (ASA) Battalion, departed Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Saigon to perform a routine radio intercept mission over Tay Ninh Province, which abuts eastern Cambodia. The crew was flying an RU-1A Otter (tail number 53271), one of three U-1As detailed to the ASA in the mid-1960s and converted for radio intercept and direction finding operations. Inside the Otter was pilot and 146th commander Maj. (later Col.) Querin Herlik, copilot CWO2 (later CWO4) Laird Osburn, Morse operator Sp5c. John Fisher, and Vietnamese linguist Sp5c. (later S. Sgt.) Robert Pryor.
Approximately thirty minutes after departure, the plane was hit by antiaircraft fire. Major Herlik was forced to land the plane in a dry rice paddy, unknowingly stopping about a half mile inside Cambodian territory. As the enemy surrounded them, Fisher and Pryor worked to destroy sensitive materials left on the plane while Herlik and Osburn returned fire. Vastly outnumbered and outgunned, the four men were quickly captured. The plane was destroyed shortly thereafter at the direction of General Creighton Abrams, commander of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV), to prevent discovery of a VC codebook and other classified equipment.
Herlik, Fisher, and Pryor were kept together and marched to a jungle base camp several miles away. They believed Osburn was dead, having been wounded during the assault and left behind. While traveling, the three crewmembers concocted a story that they had been shot down while on a basic supply run. When they finally reached the camp later that evening, they were photographed and filmed for propaganda purposes and subjected to intense interrogations.
After a couple days of constant movement, on Feb. 14, the men were handed over to the Cambodian army and driven to the capital of Phnom Penh for interrogation. This was the first time any of them learned they were in Cambodia. They also learned Osburn had survived the attack and was being treated at a French hospital. Osburn’s insistence to doctors that he had been traveling with three other Americans likely forced their transfer to Cambodian custody. According to author Jodie Hammerberg, “Had it not been for Osburn, [Herlik] believes he and the others would have been held for at least four years by the Vietcong… if they even survived.”
Not wanting to acknowledge NVA or VC operations within its borders, the Cambodian government claimed responsibility for shooting the Otter down when it invaded Cambodian airspace. The incident added significant pressure to already strained U.S.-Cambodian relations, especially when Prince Norodom Sihanouk demanded a formal apology from President Richard Nixon. The Australian government stepped in as an intermediary during negotiations.
The Americans remained in Cambodian custody at the Cambodian Naval Training Center on the Mekong River for the next month while negotiators worked on their release. On Mar. 1, Osburn was released from the hospital and allowed to rejoin his crew. Finally, on Mar. 11, 1969, the crewmen were released to the Australians and returned home. Each man received a Silver Star for their resistance to interrogation and safekeeping of classified information. One week later, on Mar. 18, 1969, President Nixon authorized Operation MENU, the covert bombing campaign of the Cambodian-Vietnamese border.
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| Date Taken: | 02.07.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 02.07.2025 14:53 |
| Story ID: | 490354 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 222 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
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